Italian medics 'in suicide plot to kill Afghan governor'

Three Italian medical workers are among nine suspects who have been detained over an alleged suicide bomb plot to kill an Afghan governor.

They were arrested after suicide bomb vests, hand grenades, pistols and explosives were found in a hospital store-room in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand.

Police were tipped off about a plot to kill Helmand's governor during a future visit to the hospital, spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.

Afghan policemen keep watch at the entrance to an Emergency hospital in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province

A video of the raid shows British troops accompanying Afghan police, soldiers and government officials to the city's Emergency Surgery Centre for Civilian War Victims, run by the Italian organisation Emergency.

In a store-room, boxes are opened containing what appear to be bullets, pistols, hand grenades and bags of explosives.

A British soldier is heard saying that an explosives disposal unit is on its way. Three foreign staff members are then shown sitting on outdoor benches, their identification cards visible, but names unclear.

In a statement, the Milan-based organisation denied involvement in any plot and said it was confident its staff would be exonerated.

'They want to get rid of a troublesome witness. Someone has organised this set-up because they want Emergency to leave Afghanistan,' its head, Gino Strada, said.

The charity accused the government of president Hamid Karzai of effectively 'kidnapping' the charity's employees - a doctor, a nurse and a logistics worker - with the backing of Nato forces fighting the Taliban in the province.

The three were taken from a hospital run by Emergency in Lashkar Gah, which is Afghanistan's most violent province and where U.S. and British forces launched a massive assault in February against Taliban fighters.

The charity said it had not been allowed telephone contact with the three suspects and that the Afghan government and international forces had not explained why they were being held.